Two B-C students disciplined for hit list
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect that the school district police officer handled the investigation.
FREDERICKTOWN – Administrators in Bethlehem-Center School District have notified law enforcement about a vague hit list they believe two students created at the middle school.
The two students accused of creating the list were removed from the building and disciplined after the list was discovered Feb. 11, according to a letter Beth-Center Middle School principal Amanda Kinneer sent home to parents the following day.
“We pretty much followed all of the protocol,” Beth-Center Superintendent Linda Marcolini said during a school board meeting Monday. The school district police officer was notified and is investigating.
A few parents complained to school directors at the meeting about the handling of the case, saying parents were not promptly notified about the potential threat to students.
One local resident, Regina Stepp, asked the board if parents will be notified if the students accused of creating the list are permitted to return to classes.
“If they are permitted back into the building, I feel it’s a threat,” Stepp said.
District solicitor James Davis said school officials cannot comment on the case because of the two students’ privacy rights.
“The district will maintain a secure environment,” Davis said.
Marcolini downplayed the incident, saying “it wasn’t actually a hit list,” and that it included wording that didn’t make sense.
However, the letter sent to parents stated “two middle school students had written a hit list.”
“The safety of the students at Bethlehem-Center School District is, as it should be, the primary concern of all district officials and employees,” Kinneer said in her letter to parents.
Davis said the district now believes the list involved people its creators wanted to punch rather than kill.
“You have to turn it in to law enforcement,” he said.
Marcolini also announced Monday that the middle school will host a parent workshop on preventing bullying at 6 p.m. March 24 in the school’s cafeteria.